Pervert paid victim monthly salary to abuse him

A PERVERT who raped and repeatedly sexually abused a schoolboy - buying him gifts and paying him a salary so he could continue abusing him - has been jailed for nine years.

But because a judge ruled that David Pendlebury poses a high risk of serious harm he also imposed an extended four-year licence term.

You were paying him a monthly salary which effectively meant you could do as you wished with him

Judge Denis Watson

Liverpool Crown Court heard the 52-year-old had exploited and corrupted his victim - starting when he was 12 - by giving him gifts and later paying him a monthly salary so he could continue his abuse.

Jailing him, Judge Denis Watson said: “I have no doubt you have an extremely dangerous sexual interest in young boys and only a custodial sentence can protect the public.

“You groomed him, supplied him with gifts and corrupted him so he would do almost anything you asked of him, so corrupt was your behaviour. You were paying him a monthly salary which effectively meant you could do as you wished with him. Small wonder he rejected his mum’s attempts to prevent you from seeing him. When he was 14 or 15 you raped him when you believed he was asleep.

“You were in a position of trust and you exploited that in a callous way. Your conduct in taking control over him is grotesque and utterly depraved. The harm you have caused is likely to be significant. He is troubled and confused and has lost his adolescence in a most shocking way at your hands.”

The judge told Pendlebury, of Railway Road, Atherton, he found it difficult to accept his claim that he cared for the victim and if he had it was in “an utterly distorted way of thinking and comes a long way behind your own sexual gratification.”

Pendlebury admitted one charge of rape and 10 of sexual activity with a child. The court heard he has a previous conviction for sexual abusing a 15-year-old boy. He must serve at least six years in jail, sign on the Sex Offender Register for life and received an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Prosecutor Neville Biddle said the offences spanned three and a half years. Pendlebury had befriended the boy and they played squash together and he bought the boy tight sportswear “which sexually aroused him.”

He began to abuse the boy and this increased in seriousness after Pendlebury began giving him gifts, including computer games. His increasingly concerned mother tried to stop him seeing Pendlebury but to little effect. “Eventually an agreement was reached that Pendlebury would give him £50 a month on the understanding he could do what he wanted,” said Mr Biddle.

The boy’s mum said alarm bells rang after she checked his mobile and found incriminating text messages. “I feel numb with guilt, angry, hurt and betrayed. He has ruined my son’s childhood and taken away his innocence and had no right to do this,” she said.

She said she believed he had seen her as an easy target as part of an elaborate plan to sexually abuse her son and spoke of her fears for the boy’s future and how it had ruined her relationship with him.

Paul Treble, defending, said: “He deeply regrets what he did and is remorseful and takes responsibility. He did genuinely care for his victim and he accepts what happened is wrong.” As he told how family, including his son, had disowned him, Pendlebury wept in the dock.